The Chelsea Buzz recently interviewed members of the Chelsea High Debate Team about their season. When asked about what they thought debate team is as a whole new the students responded that they think the debate team is a devoted group of students who are interested in learning about debate and the world around them. From all indications, the students on the debate team are very devoted to the team and their performance at the competitions.

“Debate is a very good elective to take because it challenges you and makes you think more than others”, said member Katie Cheslock, a 9th grader.

Not only is debate a fun group of students, they are very hard workers. To prepare for a debate members spend weeks researching information that applies to the topic they are debating. From that they put all of the information into a formatted speech, and begin to memorize that said speech. For some types of debates you don’t need to memorize your speech but it is important that you are very familiar with your topic. They also do many practice debates in class and Mrs. Newman, their debate teacher, judges them and gives the members feedback so they can improve before the debate.

There are eighteen students on this year’s Chelsea High School debate team, which is led by a senior, Ingrid Patrick. To be the captain of the team you must have a lot of experience to lead your team as best possible. Debate team may be an elective, but while on the team, members travel to other schools to compete. Competitions usually last from one to two days and are on the weekends.

The debate team has already participated in the Vestavia Novice Tournament on September 19. In that tournament, three Chelsea teams competed in the Public Forum debates. Those teams were Cheslock and Sam Barrett, Maddy Seeboth and Olivia Thomas, and Patrisia Garcia and Nikki Stewart. Patrick also participated in four rounds of the Original Oratory category.

Debate is very fun for most everyone. There are many different varieties of debate that you can do. Although it is a lot of work, it is definitely worth it. It is not hard at all, it is very fun but it just takes practice and time.